Our First Birthday Together

Memory Lane

Take a ride with me in my time machine.

Look who is turning 6 !?



Tippie's 6th birthday - big brother R- stands behind her

Happy Birthday Little Sis!

Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You, Happy to You, Happy Birthday Dear H-.


Tippie and MaddieMoff celebrate their birthday together

It is my birthday as well :)

Hiding My First Cache

Come along with me ... as we hide our first cache. A tribute to our local lifeguards!

GC1Y0MR Love Your Lifeguard

Heatwave

The Pickster is tired of the heat! Can we have some cooler weather
please???
I can't believe it - I am actually considering an a/c unit.

Breakfast In The Garden

Lazy, hot Sunday ... sitting on the balcony watching my plants grow &
enjoying a healthy breakfast.

Contentment!

Let's Ride A Wave Together

It's Hot

Third day in a row that we have rec'd an e-mail at work about dimming the lights and turning up the thermostat.

Hey, I volunteer to turn the lights and a/c off and go to the beach for the day!

From: The Admin Lady
To: All Staff

Good afternoon,

Due to the recent extreme temperatures, SDG&E has notified us that they have a potential need to declare Monday, August 31st as another ‘high energy usage day’. They are asking everyone to prepare to reduce their energy load again that day.

Wave Riders

Bridge Building

Bipartisan bridge-building:

On Oct. 3, 1983, Senator Ted Kennedy addressed Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Baptist College on the theme of “Faith and country, tolerance and truth in America.”

A New Addition

A little something to brighten up the balcony garden!

Look Out Here Comes A Wave!?

A Weekend Unplugged

We may be camping - but we are definitely not "roughing it" in the food dept!



It has been smores, smores and more smores. It is amazing all the fun foods you can cook over a camp fire!


Matteo our "guard" dog!

Setting Up Camp

Looking forward to a weekend unplugged!

Wanda and I setting up camp on Palomar Mountain

10 Finds!

Heather Rides A Wave

Happy Cachers

All Tired Out

Little Miss O Goes To The Beach

Fresh off the plane - little Miss O heads straight to the beach!

Quote of The Day

The secret to achieving inner peace lies in understanding our inner core values [unchanging principles]—

those things in our lives that are most important to us –

and then seeing that they are reflected in the daily events of our lives.

--Hyrum W. Smith

Sittin' Around

How about I just sit here and be cute?

Moses?

Thought For The Day

Seek significance, the rest will follow.

Hands

Truth Telling

Health-care reform that will provide quality, affordable health care for all is essential. It is a moral imperative that in a nation as prosperous as the U.S., that no one should go without health care.

Reasonable people may differ on how best to accomplish this goal.

One important moral principle for the health-care debate is truth-telling. What we need is an honest and fair debate with good information.

Snipit from Truth-telling and Responsibility in Health Care - by Jim Wallis

Click here to read the entire article

We Love You Herbie!!

All day I have been wanting to spontaneously shout out 'We Love You Herbie!!"

Turns out the Hollywood Bowl is more than a great place for a picnic. It is a wonderful place to enjoy a concert.

Our evening featured an 'odd couple' of pianists and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Lang Lang is an amazingly over the top dramatic classical pianist and Herbie Hancock, is of course the revered and always groovy jazz pianist. This odd coupling worked and it fun watching them 'play' off each other all evening.

Tonight, Herbie was definitely the favourite. The entire evening was punctuated by spontaneous shouts of 'We Love You Herbie" from the audience. The accolades didn't seem to phase Lang Lang. In response, he took the microphone and added his own "I love you Herbie'!


Herbie Hancock Plays a Free Wheeling Jazz Piano Solo At The Hollywood Bowl

The highlight of the evening was a free wheeling solo by Herbie. He owned the stage as he spun together a series of his tunes including “Cantaloupe Island,” “Dolphin Dance,” “Maiden Voyage” into a flowing, Impressionist improvisation.

We Love You Herbie!!

A Hollywood Picnic!

All day, I keep wanting to shout out "We Love You Herbie"!

Last night I made my much anticipated first trip to The Hollywood Bowl! I won tickets a few weeks ago -- ever since I have been over the top with excitement. That came crashing down when I came down sick with a viral infection and spent most of the week in bed. In fact I was still in bed when it was time to head out to the concert. Fortunately, my stubborn side kicked in and I decided what was a little fever and aches compared to a concert at the bowl?!


Arriving at 'the bowl'. Jen in line for picnic provisions

Part of the tradition of a night at the bowl is having a picnic on the grounds. With our trip up in the air until the last minute - we opted to put together a picnic once we arrived. There are lots of great options -my favourite was the potatoe salad and a decadent chocolate bar I picked up in the gift shop.


The Happy Picnickers

We had a lovely, patient couple beside us that weren't phased by my excitement and picture taking. They had entered the same contest and won their tickets. We had fun comparing our sense of accomplishment at getting such great seats for free and also talking about other fun things to do in L.A. I left with a few new items on my 'must see and do list'!


Taking a break from our picnic to pose with the stage in the background

I love outdoor venues. There is something extra special about seeing a play or listening to a concert out under the stars. The bowl is extra special because you are literally in a bowl with the hills all around you. There isn't a bad seat in the house and the acoustics are amazing! Closing your eyes, and listening to the music in the cool of the night. What an awesome end to a week in bed!

Irony

My recent fave

Fresh Vegetable Salad
Romaine, Baby Spinach, Cucumber, Tomato, Roasted Corn, Red Onion, Jicama, Daikon Sprouts, Aged Ricotta with Lemon-Basil Vinaigrette

I am just running out to grab one for a Saturday evening dinner treat.

Where to I get this wonderful salad...

Burger Lounge! Irony. Yes.

Friday Chuckle

Sleeing it off!

Still home sick. Trying to sleep off the head and body aches.
Imagine how well that is going with this outside my window!!

Sickie Awakes

I am fighting a nasty bug of some sort :(

I spent the day in bed but now I am up and about for a couple of hours to say 'hey' to out of town friends. The best part - we are meeting in a local park by the ocean.


Enjoying The View As I Wait For My Friends To Arrive

Poor Picky

My sad little friend and I are marking our one year anniversary of subQ fluids and vet trips.

Spinach Smoothie - Yum!

O.K. doubter friends.

I *can't* believe you don't trust my culinary experiments?!

Here you go. Video proof that it is not only drinkable - but absolutely delish!

Smooth Spinach Drink

O.K. so you thought the carrot smoothie was off in left field?!

Fasten your seatbelts - and join me on the Spinach smoothie ride.

Tippie's Smooth Spinach Drink

10 oz spinach (float in a bowl of ice water)
1 1/2 cups of apple juice
1 Golden Delicious Apple, cored and sliced
1 cup low fat yogurt
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh parsely leaves
a pinch of salt

drain and chop raw spinach
dump everything in the blender
puree until smooth

Server over ice. 1/2 cup per serving

Adapted from Splendid Spinach Spree

Tying The Knot

C- & M- All Smiles On Their Wedding Day

Today is "wedding day" and I was up and out bright and early and on my way down to Balboa Park. My early departure paid off and I snagged 'rock star' parking, right behind The Prado.

The Wedding felt like 'old home' week with lots of friends and former work colleagues. It was wonderful to see everyone and to share in C & M's happy day. If one things stands out from the day it was the big smiles on the faces of the bride and groom through out the ceremony! Smiles like that are contagious!

The Prado is a beautiful location. The wedding was in the terraced garden by the reflection pool. The reception that followed was both fun and delicious. My favourite was the grilled veggies... and of course the chocolate wedding cake.

A nice surprise was some mighty fine tunes payed during dinner and at the dance. Here is a little video snipit of the first dance. Be sure to watch for the surprise ending.



The next dance was the father of the groom with the bride. Guess what song they danced to ?! Surprise -- MJ's Billy Jean. Hats of to M- for getting down to that in her fancy wedding dress. Before the song wound down Mafia M*nh took a spin on the dance floor and thrilled us with his moonwalk! This group needed no encouragement to get out on the dance floor. In fact, at one point all the guests got out on the floor in a giant conga line.



Thanks C & M for a great party. Wishing you continued love and joy through out the journey!

Yes, I wore a dress

The evidence.

Big Freebie Score!

Lovin' my latest freebie score.

Free tickets to the Hollywood Bowl Friday night!!



Thank you Hollywood and Highland for the free tickets.

Wanda Gets A Check Up

Getting all checked out & ready for some adventuring!

Walk In The Park

I enjoyed a nice hour and a half walk/jog through the neighbourhood today. I made two passes through the local park!




No caches in the park. Drat!

Surprisingly Good Carrot Smoothie

Tippies Terrific Carrot Smoothie

3 large carrots chopped
1 cup coconut milk
2 cups orange juice ( or substitute 1 cup with white tea)
2 inch hunk of ginger finely chopped
2 tbs lime juice
a handful of ice

dump everything but ice in the blender
start on low and rev up to high, blend for 2 minutes
dump ice in and pulse/blend until smoothie consistency

*Note this requires a high powered blender like a vitamix. If your blender is a light weight - then cook the carrots first

This recipe is adapted from Beta-Carotene Barrage seen in Vegetarian Times